


Learning to Coexist

by ParadoxMage



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Brotp, Don't sue me, Inspired by other work, Mizu7, Modern AU, Reaper/Widow BFF's, friends - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-12
Updated: 2016-11-27
Packaged: 2018-08-30 12:53:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 2,819
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8533849
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ParadoxMage/pseuds/ParadoxMage
Summary: Gabriel Reyes is an outcast. He is hated and feared in equal measure, and he likes it that way. Then he meets another social cast off that does the impossible, and cracks his armor. Amélie Lacroix is a French exchange student who doesn't want friends and doesn't need them, until she meets the one person who actually seems to get her.The world can say their crazy, despise them, avoid them, fear them. Their okay with that. They just need the one person who actually understands them.





	1. Creation

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Coexisting](https://archiveofourown.org/works/7841293) by [Mizu7](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mizu7/pseuds/Mizu7). 



> This is a story I wrote that was inspired by Mizu7's Modern AU series, specifically Coexisting (hence the name). if you like this (or if you don't) you should check it out, it's fantastic.

“Alright class, welcome back. I know it’s been a long summer and you’re all eager…” Gabriel blocked out the droning voice.

“Does she ever shut up?” he thought to himself. It was only the first day back and he was already going crazy from boredom. Add to that the beginning of a new chapter. High School. Joy. In front of the class the teacher droned on.

“It’s gonna be a long year.”

◇ ◇ ◇

 

“Mr. Reyes.” called the teacher.

“What?” he asked, annoyance etched into every fiber of his being.

“Your partner will be Miss Lacroix for the duration of the semester. I suggest you get to know each other.” Gabriel growled under his breath. First day back and he was already being saddled with a ‘partner’. Nuisance was a better word. He didn’t recognize the name though. Lacroix. He had been attending the same school for 4 years making the fact that the name was a mystery more interesting than anything the teacher had said in the last hour. He scanned the room quickly for the unknown person the name belonged to, before his eyes settled on a tall girl with long hair dyed a purplish-blue striding towards him. She plopped her bag down, pulled out a book, and began to studiously ignore him. That was fine with Gabriel. He wanted as little to do with her as possible.

 

He was reaching down towards his own bag when he happened to glance at the title of the book the strange girl was reading. He looked on in shock as his hands continued to pull his own battered copy of ‘ _Blood-Night Slaughter 3_ ’ out of his bag, a mirror image of the book in the girl’s hands.

“You getting ready for the new movie too?” he asked.

The girl looked over at him with obvious contempt in her eyes, before stopping short at seeing a copy of the same underground book/movie series she followed so avidly. She looked at him again, as if reassessing his worth, then stuck out her hand.

“Amélie Lacroix.” she said in a thick french accent.

“Gabriel Reyes.” he said, thickening his own Spanish accent to match hers. They gave each other another once over, trying to understand what they were dealing with.

“If you cause me to fail this class then I will make sure you see nothing but the inside of a hospital room for several weeks.” said the french girl.

“And if you cause me to fail this class there won’t be enough left of you to go to the hospital.”

She gave a curt nod and turned back to her book. Gabriel kept his face grim and uncaring, but inside he was smiling. Maybe this year wouldn’t be so bad after all.

◇ ◇ ◇

 

People whispered when they passed, turning to avoid their gaze, busying themselves in lockers that had been unimportant moments before. Everyone knew the reputation of the large hispanic man, and people soon learned of Amélie, through the stories of what she’d done to a jock who was stupid enough to flirt with her. People debated who was more dangerous, though it didn’t really matter. Both were equally capable of putting you six feet under if they felt like it.

◇ ◇ ◇

 

It didn’t happen overnight, but somehow Gabriel and Amélie gradually started migrating between each others homes. Nicknames were made and used only in private moments, threats were made at the other with no intention of ever actually carrying said threat out. They were inseparable.

◇ ◇ ◇

 

Amélie was the first person he ever shared his passion with. He showed her his folders of designs, his collection of threads, needles and fabrics. She examined it all with a poker face that a pro would envy, and when he finished he sat there and patiently waited for her verdict. She looked him square in the face.

“C'est incroyable!” His face broke out in a wide grin, which he quickly tried to smother with very little success. He didn’t even need to look at his best friend to know that she was smirking at his reaction.

“You mean it Ame?” he asked quietly, still looking anywhere but at her in case he started grinning again.

“Oui.” She replied quickly.

“Gabe,” she grabbed his shoulder and forced him to look at her. “This is amazing. You could open up a shop right now and beat out every competitor in a ten mile radius. Don’t ever doubt yourself.”

“You’re gonna give me a swelled head Ame.” he said, trying to hide how much he had needed to hear just that. She laughed.

“It’s not like you need my help with that mon ami.” He punched her in the shoulder, but he didn’t mean it and they both knew it. They just sat there for a while, glad to have someone who actually understood them.


	2. Seperation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They were inseparable. But events conspired against them

“You’re leaving?!” he asked. It came out like an accusation, an attack aimed at her, his best friend, an expression of the betrayal he was struggling to beat back.

She looked at him and he was shocked to see a hint of tears in her eyes. He was even more shocked when he felt a matching prickle in his own.

“It’s my parents. They want me to come back to France, find a husband, settle down.”

“But you just finished high school! You’re only eighteen!” His voice raising as he said every word, shock and horror apparent in his voice at the terrible thing she was being forced into.

“Do you think I don’t know that!” She snapped at him. He realized that however hard this was for him, it was much worse for her. She took in a deep, shaky breath. “They are my parents. They’re the only family I have left. I don’t know what I’d do if I left.”

 

“You could come and stay with me,” he said. He hadn’t realized he was going to say it until it was out of his mouth, but he didn’t once think of rescinding the offer. He meant it.

“We could get an apartment, stay there while my shop gets up and running...” He was desperate now. He didn’t want to lose her. She was his closest friend, his only friend. He loved her like the sister he’d never had.

“Non,” she said, and that one word cut him like an icy dagger in between his ribs.

“I can’t just leave them. Please, Gabe, I don’t want to do this. Don’t make it harder.” The tears that had been lingering in her eyes started to roll down her cheeks, his own doing the same. He looked at her, and in an instant he knew that trying to keep her with him would only hurt her. So he didn’t. He hugged her. Even at his impressive height she was still taller than him.

 

“My offer still stands. If you ever need a place to go, if you ever need to talk, I’m here.” He reached into his pocket for a piece of paper and a pen, coming up with one of his latest designs for a stylish new suit he was hoping to market. It was his only copy of the drawing. Losing it could mean he lost the design forever, and perhaps the chance at owning his store. Without hesitation he wrote down his phone number and passed it to her.

“If you ever need someone brutally maimed you know who to call.” he said, cracking a smile that he didn’t feel, knowing full well it wouldn’t fool her. She smiled back, no more convincingly than he did, and took the paper. She was still crying.

 

“Au revoir Gabriel Reyes...” she said quietly.

“Adios Amélie Lacroix...” They looked at each other once more before Amélie turned and walked out the front door, before she could lose her nerve.

 

◇ ◇ ◇

 

It would be weeks before Gabe would stop talking to a missing entity, addressing remarks to an invisible companion.

 

He liked to think Amélie was doing the same.

 

Wherever she was.

  
◇ ◇ ◇


	3. Reintigration

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's been years since they saw each other. But that doesn't mean they've stopped caring.

He got the call four years later. He picked up his phone to a number he didn’t recognize, and growled, expecting another telemarketer or spam call.

“You have ten seconds to hang up the phone before I track you down and put you and every member of your family in the emergency room.” He heard laughter on the other end, a laugh that was oh so familiar, from a time in the past where he had a navy haired shadow to make death threats at and with. He nearly dropped the phone.

“Amélie?!” he asked, all pretense of anger dropping from his voice.

“Oui.” she replied, that single syllable representing the return of something they had both longed for for the last four years.

“I am going to find you, wherever you are and strangle you! Four years Ame. Four. Fucking! YEARS! Where are you, so I can measure your coffin.” he yelled into the phone, the angry words only partially able to mask the smile in his voice.

“Outside your front door.” He heard a knock. This time he did drop his phone.

 

◇ ◇ ◇

 

He looked at her, trying to absorb every detail of his best friend. She looked the same, and yet, she was different in so many subtle ways. Her posture had been good before, but now she acted like an automaton, movements too perfect, too precise.  Her hair was longer, but the exact same purpley-blue shade as before, understated but eye catching. She had the same coiled grace and hidden strength, traits that bespoke the ability to snap limbs, if given a reason. His eyes trailed down to her hands, where the most evident change sparkled brightly.

 

The diamond was huge, and so was the house and bank account of her fiancé. She filled him in on her soon to be husband, and the more she talked the less animated she became, growing more and more despondent as the conversation wore on. Her initial enthusiasm at seeing her best friend for the first time in four years faded to a muted demeanor that Gabriel had never seen from her. Anger was common, as was happiness, to a slightly lesser extent. He was familiar with sadness from her as well, though it was rare. But this… This was new, an uncaring emptiness that seemed to consume more of his best friend by the second. He realized it was hopelessness, coupled with dread and acceptance, the kind of expression you might find on a terminally ill cancer patient.

 

As her eyes drifted down to the ring on her finger, he realized that this complete departure from joy had been caused by the precious gemstone adorning her finger, along with the man who had put it there. Everything he had heard about Gérard shaped a picture of a misogynistic, spoiled asshole, who would try to destroy everything wonderful about his beloved Ame.

 

He realized what was really different about her now. Not her poise, not her mannerisms. He didn’t see _her_ when he looked at her, not anymore. His first, and for the longest time only, friend had been replaced by her parents aspirations for their child, the girl who would marry young to a rich man and stay at home to raise the children. The idea was so incongruous, so simply _wrong_ it made him want to vomit. He looked over at her and she avoided his gaze, afraid of the way out he might offer, and yet so desperate for it.

“Ame?”

 

He guided her head up, making her meet his eye. 

 

“Are you happy?”

 

She looked down at her hands, the ring twinkling coldly on her fourth finger. Without looking up, she replied.

 

“I don’t know.”

 

◇ ◇ ◇


	4. Unification

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After so long, they're finally together again.

It was three in the morning. Gabriel growled, slapping at his alarm clock for several minutes before realizing the annoying beeping was coming from his phone. Still only half awake, he snatched the buzzing object off of his dresser, glancing at the number to see who he would soon be adding to his ‘People to Torture and Then Kill _Very_ Slowly’ list. The contact photo he had taken hours before dispelled his desire for sleep and vengeance (not necessarily in that order) instantly. He sat on the edge of the bed in his boxers and put the phone to his ear.

 

“Ame?” he said. He could hear shaky breathing on the other end, before her voice came through, her accent strengthened by emotion.

“I need a place to stay.”

“What happened?” he asked, his worry apparent from his tone.

Another pause, where the only sound was choked sobs.

“Later,” she answered. “Right now I…” She stopped and he heard her struggling to get a cracking voice under control again.

“I just can’t. Please, Gabe.”

He understood. Better than anyone, he understood.

“What time will you be here?”

 

◇ ◇ ◇

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm thinking of doing one more short part to his story, I don't know. If it's wanted I'll do it, if not, maybe.


	5. Salvation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Only Gabe knows how badly Amélie is taking her severance with Gérard and the rest of her family. Fortunately, he's there to help her put her life back together.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I debated putting this up for ages, before telling myself that if this story got 200 hits I'd publish it. So... here it is.

By the time Amélie arrived the night had crept so close to morning that Gabe figured he’d give her a tour of his, _their_ , apartment and not bother trying to get back to sleep, since he’d be back up in an hour anyway

 

“That’s your room, that’s the bathroom. _That_ is my room. Do not go in there on pain of death, understood?”

 

His threat would have been taken more seriously by most people, but she knew him better than that, smirking slightly at the endearing way he threatened to kill her. He was smiling too, but not visibly. He still had an image to maintain.

 

Whether she saw right through it or not was unimportant.

 

“Well, I’ll let you get settled.” he said and turned to go. As he left he glanced into the mirror that stood opposite his friend and new roommate's bedroom. She was holding her head in her hands, and every inch of her being expressed the internal torment she had to be going through after turning her back on her family and Gérard.

 

◇ ◇ ◇

 

Some people wore their emotions on their sleeves, crying to friends or even strangers. Living life with their hearts unguarded, showing their love and pain to the world like they had nothing to hide. Amélie wasn’t like that. She kept her heart guarded, locked up tightly to protect from pain and loss. It had taken him years to work his way past her armor, and even then he was met with layers and layers of defenses.

 

He was closer to her than anyone had ever gotten, so he knew that the front that she had put up on her arrival was just that. It was simply how she lived her life, the emotions at her core always guarded but for rare moments. She kept herself composed in front of everyone, only releasing the stranglehold she kept on her pain when she thought she was alone, suffering through it all on her own.

 

But even with that ironclad self restraint, he saw through it all, and saw how broken up she was about this.

 

He had known her for years, and this was the saddest he had ever seen her.

 

It made his heart ache.

 

◇ ◇ ◇

 

He sighed as he walked away, upset that there was so little he could do besides welcome her to his home as best he could, and try to make her forget about her former fiancé. He needed something more though, something new that could catch her interest. Or maybe someone.

 

When she had walked away from Gérard she had walked away from all her friends and family. He was all she had left. Maybe he could introduce her to some people he knew, try to get her mind off of the shit turn her life had taken.

 

He walked over to the small balcony and stood in the cool morning air, relieved to have his best friend back, but still worried as to how he could make her feel better. He ran through the few people he knew that could be suitable, but quickly came up empty. The only candidate he found _remotely_ possible was Jack, and that was simply not happening.

 

As he turned to leave he saw a flash of movement out of the corner of his eye. Whipping around to see the whatever it was, the darting object resolved itself into the shape of a short girl in a yellow hoodie jogging down the street. He smiled to himself.

 

◇ ◇ ◇

 

He was a tailor. A large part of his job was fixing things that were broken. Amélie was in desperate need of repair.

 

Over the years he had learned to pick out just the right tools he would need to fix a ripped vest or a slashed sport coat. It was, he reflected, rather the same for people, finding what they needed to be made better. And if there was one thing his best friend needed in her life right now, it was a ray of sunshine.

 

Luckily for her, he knew just the girl.

 

◇ ◇ ◇

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This story is officially over, I hope you guys enjoyed it. I'd seriously love any hate comments (or anything that is even remotely nice) and I have some other stories I want to write/post here, so that might happen. I don't know. 
> 
> Thanks for reading :)


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